Observations, articles, opinions etc. in Dutch and English. The author, Bert de Bruin (Yonathan Dror Bar-On), is a Dutch-Jewish historian, who has specialized in modern Jewish history and in the history of the Middle East, and who in 1995 emigrated from the Netherlands to Israel. He wrote one book (2008), and edited another (2011), both in Dutch. For feedback please post a comment, or send this blog's author an email: (hisdutchname)atyahoodotcom

Wednesday, August 03, 2005

These last few weeks I hardly ever saw a whole evening news broadcast, simply because I did not have the patience to listen to reports of yet another anti-pullout demonstration. This evening I had nothing better to do and I watched the Channel 10 news. One of the settler leaders, Daniella Weiss ( mayor of Kedumim, a settlement in the Westbank ), confronted a female police officer. The officer showed an order telling Mrs Weiss and others who wanted to enter Gush Katif that the area is a closed military zone. The woman tore up the order and a scuffle started. While Mrs Weiss shouted that she is a religious woman, that the soldiers and policemen and -women should not touch her etc. she herself pushed and pulled the clothes of the police officer. She lied down on the ground, and the officer told the soldiers to leave her like that. Except for the scuffle, with agitation on both sides, everything went smoothly and without overdue force. Then we saw Daniella Weiss, still lying down, giving an interview in English, saying that "we are treated like wild animals" and so on. Personally I was amazed at the calm- and politeness of the soldiers and policemen.

Eli Moyal, the mayor of Sderot, told the 'demonstrators' that there will be no disengagement. Like the leaders of Yesha he urges the settlers to hold on to an unsustainable illusion, rather than helping them to swallow the bitter pill and to start facing reality. This way it will be much harder for many settlers who eventually will find themselves evacuated to rebuild their post-disengagement lives. Joseph Abutbul, a resident who had to pay 260 shekel to the municipality for a place to stand and sell toys ( he hardly sold anything; I wonder if the 'demonstrators' had to pay for the services and facilities that they received from the Culture and Sports Center and other municipal institutions ) said it very well: "If not for Gush Katif and all the money that they 'swallowed', Sderot and Ofakim and all the other development towns would be much better of." Later in the program one of the ( secular ) settlers who left Gush Katif willingly was interviewed after she received one of the "caravillas" ( a new word in Hebrew ) that serve as temporary housing for the evacuees. She sounded very satisfied, said that Nitsanit - the community between Ashqelon and the Gaza Strip that is being prepared for the absorption of some of the settlers - is beautiful, with the same view as the settlement where she came from, only safer. Apparently not all settlers are sad to return to Israel.